Genetic predictors of benefit from adjuvant interferon for melanoma: understanding variation in tumour/host interaction

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It is likely that an individual‘s response to cancer and to treatment is linked to inherited genetic variation and genetic changes that occur in their tumour. Interferon therapy extends time without recurrence of disease after surgery for melanoma patients but has many side effects and currently we cannot predict who will respond or who will develop side effects. Genetic alterations could be used to help predict a patients‘ response to interferon and we aim to identify these alterations. In Leeds, we are going to analyse tissue samples removed from patients treated as part of clinical trials with interferon. We will extract genetic material from these samples and identify genetic alterations in both inherited and tumour genes. Using the data that has already been collected for the interferon trials, we will identify genetic alterations that predict benefit from interferon, side effects from interferon and survival in melanoma. Identification of these genetic factors will help identify those who will obtain an overall benefit from interferon helping clinicians and patients make informed choices about treatment options, and will tell us more about how people‘s inherited characteristics interact with cancer cells.